Affordable Macro Photography

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[embed]http://youtu.be/-rseiiGoGjQ[/embed] There are plenty of amazing photographic and video techniques to delve into one you get acclimated with your cameras basic functions. Such as:

Black & White, HDR ( High Dynamic Range), Tilt Shift, Time Lapse, Slow Motion, Macro, Astrophotography and more.

With each one having a vast new set of skills and accessories required to perfect it, it’s easy to spend a fair amount of cash before reaching some level of success. Today I want to talk about one affordable incredibly effective method to get you started in Macro Photography and Videography. Using the equipment you already have in your camera bag, you too can make amazing macro photography and video for under five dollars. First take a look at the type of results you will achieve in the video above I’ve made for Coin Enthusiasts, as well as Macro Photographers.

What Do I Need?

Okay now to the good stuff. Before you invest in a 

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro Lens

for nearly $1,000.00, I suggest what’s called a “

Reverse Ring

“. 

It is a small ring that enables a solid connection bewteen the 

front

 of your lens, with the front of your camera, essentially flipping your lens around 180 degrees.

60DwithReverseRing1 cameraplex

60DwithReverseRing1 cameraplex

 This will work with any lens you have, just make sure to get a reverse ring with a diameter equal to that of your lens. This lens has a diameter of 67mm so I purchased a 

67mm Reverse Ring

. Unlike most any other case, a zoom lens works best with this. Different combinations of the zoom and focus will give you macro capability anywhere from about 16 inches up to 1 1/2 inches.

60DwithReverseRing2 cameraplex

60DwithReverseRing2 cameraplex

How Does it Work?

      Why this works (in short) is that the optics of every lens is designed so that all the light rays passing through it come together at a fixed point very near to the rear of your lens (your sensor). So when you flip the lens around you reverse the optics enabling macro level focus. To arrange all the rays of light to line up and form a focused image, you must view an object at macro distances rather than feet or yards away.

60DwithReverseRing4 cameraplex

60DwithReverseRing4 cameraplex

Further Reading

Here is a gallery of other macro photography techniques if you're interested in researching more.

Now go find some bugs!

Photographer Spotlight: Nikki Graziano | Found Functions

Local New York photographer Nikki Graziano really captured my attention with her photographic series Found Functions. It portrays the unseen relationship between nature and the mathematical blueprint that defines its form. Nikki, a photographer and Rochester Institute of Technology Alumni, minoring in mathematics, devised graphs of equations that match the visible characteristics of the subjects chosen for her pictures.

Nikki's talents and passion in photography and mathematics enable her to see beyond the typical compositional associations one might make, deep into the hidden and ever-present mathematical forms that surround us.

I reached out to her on the inspiration for the series - she tells me

" I was driving after a calculus class and just started seeing in tree lines all the curves I had just spent 3 hours drawing in my notes."

Her instance of inspiration for the series reminds of an archetypal film scene, where a free spirited character is driving down an open road, with their arm out the window gently oscillating up and down against the wind, leaving the invisible etching of a sine wave behind them.

Nikki's has more galleries on her website, including a compelling set of portraiture which, much like a math problem, takes on a static yet dynamic form with the urge for interpretation.